MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 February 1939, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

GOVERNMENT FAILURES. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The Government schools for Maori children and the “Maori Messenger,’’ a state controlled Maori-English newspaper for adults, were conspicuous failures. The schools were conducted by three denominations under government subsidy and supervision which were both quite inadequate. For some obscure reason boys and girls were obliged to live at the schools where food, clothing, and housing were not even as good as in the Maori homes. The Maoris were, of course, reluctant about sending their children where such conditions prevailed, and became so prejudiced against the State, that the teachers represented the subsidies as "coming from the church; not from the enemy.” The political and social education oi the adult Maori was supposed to come from the subsidised newspaper which was a contemptible failure, socially, politically, and in its business. It was supposed to have a free circulation in every district, yet there were many tribes who never saw it, and even chiefs, dead years before, to whom it was still posted regularly. Another government failure was the supply of ploughs, carts and mills to the Maori, whose hitherto steady concerted labour was the very spark of life to the whole race. Wealth and luxury were their lure; but the results were idleness, dissipation, and depravity. Dependence upon charitable aid completed the downfall of this splendid race of contented workers.